Now, we don't have Minaya or Ricco, the two people we understood were supposed to be minding the store for the Wilpons. We have an 18-word statement from Jeff Wilpon which successfully keeps a professional face on the Mets while continuing to disfigure the appearance of that face. And we have the hurt feelings of Mets fans materializing in outrage over the off-the-field shenanigans.

While I applaud the Wilpons for condemning K-Rod's behavior in a brief and succinct manner, I don't look to them for anything more. The owners' job should be to sign the checks, keep the meddling to a minimum,

Gomez / APSo who's the chief?

and demand accountability from those they designate as the overseers of baseball operations. I wouldn't qualify the Wilpons' performance in that last category as a rousing success. I would approve of their continued ownership, because James Dolan would quickly become one of the front runners to buy the team.

Instead, these dark days facing the Mets demands the person or persons responsible for managing the organization to step up and say, "The buck stops here." I understand that role falling under the General Manager's job description, and would welcome Omar Minaya speaking up and asserting himself or John Ricco speaking out and showing us who's the power behind the throne.

What we can't have is radio silence. We need Omar Minaya to speak up, or we need to start our search for someone who will.------